10/15. Tuesday - Vatican and Rome's Hot Spots

10/15 Tuesday. Vatican and Popular spots in Rome  Up early as we had 9:30 tickets for a guided tour of the Vatican Gardens. wonderful... No crowds to speak of and our guide did a beautiful job of explaining everything to us. At the highest point in the gardens a cleared area was pointed out to us as the helicopter pad, nearby was a circular tower building that Pope John XXIII had refurbished as an important guest residence during the early 1960's. She also pointed out the building that is the current residence of the former Pope Benedict. While there a door opened and out come a beautiful black and white kitty, with an aide keeping a watchful eye out as he strolled in the sunshine. Yes, our guide said.. This is one of several cats that Pope Benedict keeps.

At the end of our garden tour we went straight into the Vatican Museum...now this is where we found the crowds of tourist. Many we were told from the cruise boats anchored in the bay outside of Rome. Martha and I have both seen this lovely museum so the four of us split agreeing to meet later in the day back at our hostel. The twins did a fast tour as we plunged thru the massive crowds of people and were done in about an hour or so. Bonnie and Jane spent at least 5 hours enjoying this museum. We on the other hand went from the Sistine chapel direct into St Peters basilica . We decided to keep the bell tower and Pope John Paul's crypt till after the Scavi tour on Thursday as we would again end up back inside of St. Peter's and be much more rested to climb lots of steps. So we just visited the Pieta and my favorite Cherub holy water fountain, and a few other areas before heading out to catch a bus back towards the hostel.

Next we ended up on another bus to find the American college where we would pick up our tickets for tomorrow's Papal Audience. While searching for this we happened on a completely unexpected Changing of the Guards Ceremony at the Italian headquarters in Rome. lot of fun taking pictures of this ceremony. We finally found the right place and picked up our tickets. In addition this afternoon we visited St Ignazio Di Loyola Church where I did a prayer stop while lighting a candle for family members, thru a coin into the famous and well packed with people! Trevi Fountain, watched people sitting on the Spanish Steps... Treated ourselves to some lemon gelato....and caught the. Metro back home . A stop at the market inside the train station and we had dinner to enjoy on our hostel patio. I